Table of Contents

Introduction; Section I: Rituals of Rulership in Arabia and the Conquest Polity (c.570-692); 1. Ritual and Authority in the Late Antique Near East; 2. The Bay'a: the Expression of Loyalty in the First Century of Islam.; 3. Authority and Succession in the 'Conquest Polity' (622-661); 4. Near Eastern Kingship: The Sufyanid and Zubayrid Caliphates (661-692); Section II: The Marwanid State (692-749); 5. The Wilayat al-'ahd: Dynastic Succession in Early Islam; 6. State Ceremonial: the Bay'a in the Early Marwanid Period; 7. Revolutionary Bay'as: Loyalty at the End of the Marwanid Caliphate and During the Abbasid Revolution; Section III: The Early Abbasid Caliphate (749-817); 8. Succession in the Early Abbasid Period; 9. Documents and the Bay'a from al-Wal?d II to al-Mu'tazz (743-870); 10. Al-Mansur and the Succession of al-Mahdi: 136/754-160/776; 11. Succession and Civil War; 12. Al-Ma'mun and al-Rida; Section IV: The Rise of the Turks (817-870); 13. Al-Mu'tasim and al-Wathiq; 14. Al-Mutawakkil and the Third Century Civil War; Conclusion and Comparisons.

About the Author

Andrew Marsham is a Lecturer in Islamic History at the University of Edinburgh

Reviews

The book impresses particularly because of the author's critical treatment of the sources and resulting historical approach. Andrew Marsham has not only filled a gap by presenting a comprehensive study of the caliphal bay'a up to the tenth century, his study is also an example of how to deconstruct a normative view of Islamic history that uncritically takes classical sacralizing Sunnite interpretations of the Muslim past for granted. -- Almut Hofert Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies The book impresses particularly because of the author's critical treatment of the sources and resulting historical approach. Andrew Marsham has not only filled a gap by presenting a comprehensive study of the caliphal bay'a up to the tenth century, his study is also an example of how to deconstruct a normative view of Islamic history that uncritically takes classical sacralizing Sunnite interpretations of the Muslim past for granted. -- Almut Hofert Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies The book impresses particularly because of the author's critical treatment of the sources and resulting historical approach. Andrew Marsham has not only filled a gap by presenting a comprehensive study of the caliphal bay'a up to the tenth century, his study is also an example of how to deconstruct a normative view of Islamic history that uncritically takes classical sacralizing Sunnite interpretations of the Muslim past for granted. The book impresses particularly because of the author's critical treatment of the sources and resulting historical approach. Andrew Marsham has not only filled a gap by presenting a comprehensive study of the caliphal bay'a up to the tenth century, his study is also an example of how to deconstruct a normative view of Islamic history that uncritically takes classical sacralizing Sunnite interpretations of the Muslim past for granted.